Messages - WilliamRay

One thing that made me feel better recently was Esme's list of books from other blogs that didn't make finalist. She rated several from other groups higher than her own finalists. I've read Kings of Paradise and Kingshold, and really enjoyed both, although neither made finals... but I've also read We Ride The Storm and despite liking Devin from social media and etc, and I just didn't connect with that book at all (I didn't even post a review, because I just didn't get it).

I suspect that since the BookNest organizer wanted to put two books from his group forward and so I was chosen as collateral damage to the success of Devin Madson's We Ride The Storm... but it would have been nice to lose as a semi-finalist to the panel rather than by pocket veto.

Yeah, seeing some of the finalists, I can't help but feel a little robbed by being declared the best of my sub-group yet denied an opportunity to have another judge's review. It's been fun, and I've gotten a lot out of the SPFBO, but I do grouse a bit that I wasn't accorded semi-finalist status.

Well, looks like Ned Marcus and I have both been reviewed by BookNest now... Grimmedian pulled no punches, so I'm not sure whether it's good news or not for either of us on that one. There are three others in our initial grouping unreviewed, so it's hard to say on either book whether those were fatal shots, or merely across the bow.

For this year's SPFBO we are kicking things off with a sale. Over 120 titles (including my The Great Restoration) have been marked down to 99-cents/pence until August 5th. Some of indie writing's hottest new stars are competing, and this is your chance to play the home game and judge over a third of this year's entries for yourself without breaking the bank.

Because we mentioned it here, without getting too spammy I thought I'd toss up a quick link to the SPBFO sale going on the first five days of August -- over 120 SPFBO titles are up marked down to 99c/p. http://www.andreadomanski.com/spfbo

Following Mark and other judges on Twitter can help too... that's where I first saw it this year.

If you follow Esme Weatherwax, she is also pretty good about posting/retweeting SPFBO updates. Actually, if you're selfpublishing fantasy you should be following her regardless, just for TBRINDR if nothing else.

Wow, they really did change up! None of my least-favorites won, but aside from Benedict Patrick's, none of my front-runners really placed either. Mark said the voting on public choices was really close though, with a single vote making the difference for the covers in the top 3. Apparently there were 12k views of that blog-post though!

Well, maybe, but the part that bugs me about it is that it doesn't look like boring fantasy. There's nothing that strikes me as anything but mundane and terrestrial. It seems like you could do a pastoral scene with, I don't know, a dragon flying in the distance or something, but a pastoral scene without any elaboration doesn't really sell the genre aspect. From the cover, I'd have assumed Balam was just someplace in Tuscany.

It definitely depends on the type of story you're telling... some structures really benefit from it, and others don't.

I think Columbo was a fascinating study in this, because many of the stories were told primarily from the antagonist's perspective. Unlike most murder mysteries, Columbo episodes usually told you the murderer's identity from the beginning, and it was all about seeing how Columbo could unravel their perfect plan. You'd see him poking and prodding, but many of the stories' action would center around the coverup, rather than the detection, and that was an interesting approach to an often-stale genre.

On the other hand, Lord of the Rings from Sauron's perspective? Who cares about Sauron's perspective? That's not really what the story is about, and seeing him being annoyed at not finding the ring right away wouldn't have added much depth to the plot, and would have undermined his status as the unknowable, implacable adversary.

It depends on the sort of villain, and the sort of tale being told. Sometimes it can upsell the villain's menace, but other times it just undercuts. Sometimes the villain isn't the real problem, and it's helpful to illustrate that, but other times that just undoes a twist at the end. It's definitely not something that has a clear-cut answer that applies to all stories! When considering it you just have to make a list of what it adds, and what it takes away, and just do the math.

I am also in this contest, so wish me luck too!And my book (The Great Restoration) is up against @NedMarcus (Blue Prometheus) in the very first round! Drama!

The covers contest has been interesting. I definitely have very different tastes from some of the judges, apparently. Balam, Spring is really crushing the public vote on the covers... it's a really pretty image, but doesn't seem like a fantasy cover to me. I'm told it's a slice-of-life sort of story though, and that the pastoral image really makes sense in that context.

Many writers in the SPBO 2018, including me, are putting their books up for sale for 99c, from 1-5th August. I'd like to put up a link somewhere here, not sure where, nearer the time. There should be 100+ fantasy novels on sale then. @WilliamRay is there, too.

We're not supposed to tell people that yet, so... shhh! I haven't read Blue Prometheus yet, but it looks frightfully good, considering that our books are squared off against each other in the very first round of SPFBO! Yikes.

But yes, for those wishing to play the SPFBO home game, there may or may not be a sale so you can more easily afford read along with the epic conflict of SPFBO 2018... a sale which I definitely gave you no hint would be happening, if it did happen, which maybe it won't, I'm certainly not saying.

If it were to happen, maybe Ned will come back and post a link to it later, if such a thing existed, which it might, but I'm certainly not saying it will or that he would, or that either of us are involved, if it is happening, because I can neither confirm nor deny it.

Carnivores of Light and Darkness! Alan Dean Foster.No idea why I couldn't remember it, or how I suddenly remembered it now, but there it is. There were three books in that series, all pretty fun, as I recall... although it's been twenty years.